not true…today I listened to two people and got my butt in gear and quit procrastinating about a couple of things.

The first was when this nice lady Ruth came by to pick up some information about SAINTS that she wanted to share at a meeting she was heading off to. She told me that last week her neighbors llama, who they had had for several years went nutz and killed two sheep and tried to kill her neighbor too! She said it was because he was an intact male that he went crazy. I called the vet, he said there is a “bezerke llama syndrome” that can rarely affect intact males…not rare enough…I booked Carl’s neuter for the 25th.

The second thing was when I went to the paint store to get some more primer for the inside of the rabbit room (I thought it would save time to get our handy guy to spray the primer for us before we paint the fun colors). It was exterior paint. She said “it is kinda late to be painting outside isn’t it?”…is it? I did not know that…anyway,Â I listened to her and bought some purple paint andÂ painted the outside siding Â of the rabbit room today, just in case we run out of outside painting time.Â It looks good.

So thereÂ are two things that I listened to someone and got moving on quicker. Unfortunately, nowÂ I am behind in the regular stuff here, so i guess I better go clean the barn (in the dark, bleck!)

You may have to drop by to pick them up….I’m swamped with work/mom/crappy legal stuff for the next 72 hours or so. I will resist the urge to eat them myself, I promise. I need something stronger than cookies.

As more and more people become familiar with lamas and begin to breed, they need to know and understand what to do to ensure that their animals are easy to work with and yet remain gentle and safe around human adults and children.

What is the Berserk Male (Female) Syndrome in lamas? This is a behavior that develops when the lama is around 2-3 years of age, going into his/her puberty years. It is due to too much or improper handling of the lama when the lama is a baby. Lamas need to be lamas: they need to remain with their mother until they are 5-6 months of age and to learn proper lama social behavior within the herd.

The berserk male (female) syndrome arises when a baby lama has too much or improper interaction with humans and bonds to humans at a young age. When the lama reaches the puberty years, he/she treats humans as another lama. Males will fight among each other, a perfectly normal behavior between male lamas. A male lama that has been bonded to a human will try to attack and fight with the human to establish dominance. A human is no match for a 300-500-pound lama and can be severely injured. Male lamas that have this behavior generally have to be euthanized as there is no cure and they can never be trusted around humans.

Female lamas generally will become spitters and will be pushy. They will come up to humans and will not back off and give humans their space. They will also try to show humans where they are in the lama social pecking order by spitting at them and putting them in their place. There is no cure for this behavior. Once a female lama is a spitter, she will remain a spitter and treat humans as another lama.

The berserk syndrome in past years was responsible for giving zoo lamas a bad reputation. Zoo animals were routinely taken away from their mothers and bottle fed, a practice that just about guarantees that the lama will have the berserk syndrome when he/she is older. Many peopleâ€™s first experience with lamas has been in a zoo when they walk up to the lama area and are spit upon by these animals.

One symptom that may indicate that a lama may develop the berserk syndrome is a young lama that is too friendly, comes up to you, and does not back off. A young lama may also show you the â€œsubmissive responseâ€: hunching over and flipping his tail up over his back, acknowledging that you may be the â€œdominant lamaâ€ right now but WATCH OUT! Lamas are normally aloof and should not be friendly (they should be easy to work with, companionable, and gentle but their personality is quite different from our usual pets like cats and dogs that will come up and cuddle with you).

How does one treat baby lamas so that they grow up properly? At Llama Lledge Farm, we will check out our newborns to ensure that they are OK, treat the umbilical cord, handle the feet and legs, and then BACK OFF! They need their mother when they are first born and for the first few months of age and do not need us interfering with what care and education she will give them. Anyone who has watched baby lamas in a herd situation will see them imitate mom (mom spits and hangs her mouth open and the baby will walk around for hours with his/her mouth open). We will start working with the lamas at about 3-4 months of age, when they have been fully bonded to the herd and see us as â€œhumansâ€. Lamas should not be bottle fed, except in an emergency situation (mother has no milk, etc.) and then should be kept in the herd structure, with the mother always present for comfort and care. They should not be brought into the home and treated like â€œpetsâ€. The least you can do for a baby to get him through the rough times, the better off he/she will be.

Keeping these issues in mind, minimal touching now and then of a baby in a herd situation will not harm him/her during this time. Itâ€™s the constant and improper handling or bottle feeding that will cause this behavior. Be sure to check out the baby once in a while to make sure everything is going well. Most of all, enjoy those babies!

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment

Name *

Email *

Website

Select an image for your comment (GIF, PNG, JPG, JPEG):

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Name:Email:

Archives

Archives

Categories

Categories

Latest Tweets

Stella is a 10 year old purebred English setter. She has been at SAINTS for almost a year and would love a home of her own. She is in good health and loves people. Not so good with living with other dogs though. Interested ... email adopt@saintsrescue.ca pic.twitter.com/uNis…

@thesilencebird Hi Damien we don’t make trips outside of the Lower mainland to pick up animals that are admitted into the sanctuary. The few times we have gone outside of BC we have been lucky in that the shelter arranges for the travel down to us.

Last weekend we attended #vancoufur2018 to showcase SAINTS work. SAINTS ambassador Rayne was thrilled to greet so many new friends.. Thank you to the organizers of this event who raised $2500 for SAINTS. We were humbled by the many people we met who thanked us for our work pic.twitter.com/ky7h…